Archive for the ‘motorcycles’ tag

The Yamaha exhibit at the 2014 New York Motorcycle Show. Photos by author.

On Thursday, December 11, we trekked to Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center to attend the media day for the New York City stop on the 2014 Progressive Motorcycle Show tour. Just about any new motorcycle manufacturer you can name was represented, as were hundreds of aftermarket motorcycle suppliers in an interactive retail space called The Marketplace. Many of the motorcycle companies unveiled new models for the 2015 riding season, and custom bikes were also displayed at booths throughout the show floor. Representatives of the attending bike manufacturers were on hand to explain the various bike models and their features, as were representatives of gear manufacturers to help attendees find the correct fit helmet, jacket or other riding gear.

Here are just a few of the many bikes that can be seen this weekend:

Honda Grom.

One of the more popular starter bike for young riders is the Honda Grom. Their short stature and 125cc engine are great for indoctrinating youngsters into the riding culture, and it didn’t take long before these bikes were also being customized, just like any other street bike. Progressive Insurance teamed up with Autism Speaks to craft a customized Grom that will be shown this weekend (and at several future dates) before being auctioned, with proceeds to benefit Autism Speaks. The custom paint scheme, seat, baby blue powdercoating and other details were accomplished in just 2 weeks by builders Garwood Custom Cycles of Lexington, North Carolina.

Victory Gunner.

Victory featured their 2015 Gunner, a heavyweight cruiser with 106 cubic inch V-twin engine, 24-spoke wheels and a low stature for short-legged riders. The seat height is a mere 25 inches and pullback handle bars make this model a comfortable long distance cruiser or day-tripper that won’t break your back.

Triumph Thruxton Ace Café 900.

Triumph featured several classic throwback models at the show, including the Thruxton Ace Café 900 and the T214 Bonneville. The Thruxton was designed as a production café racer with rearset pegs and clip-on style handle bars. It features Thruxton and Ace Café logos on the side covers, rear fender and fuel tank. The Bonneville T214 was made to honor the 214.40 mph land speed record set at Bonneville in Sept. 1956 by the Triumph-powered Johnny Allen Streamliner. A reproduction of the original “world’s fastest motorcycle” decal that was produced shortly after the record run is displayed atop the fuel tank of the T214. A white star also adorns the blue front fender as a tribute to the star on the nose of the record-setting streamliner.

Ducati Scrambler Icon.

Ducati was in attendance in full force, with their complete model line of Monsters, Diavels and 899 Panigales, however, they placed their new Scrambler Icons in their own separate display. The Scrambler Icon is powered by a 75 hp, 803 cc, Desmodromic, 2-valve, air cooled engine and the inverted Kayaba 41mm front forks and adjustable, single rear shock provide the needed suspension. The bike’s 31 inch seat height will prove tall for some, but the 375 lb. dry weight should make it pretty easy to maneuver.

Other things to see at the International Motorcycle Show include:

An appearance by Don Emde, who will detail his participation in the retracing of the route covered by Cannonball Baker on his record-setting cross country ride of 100 years ago.

11-time world champion drag bike racer Rickey Gadson will also be on hand to show his new Kawasaki Ninja H2R-G supercharged drag bike.

The show is open to the public from Friday December, 12th through Sunday, December 14th at the Jacob Javits Center on New York City’s West side. The immense venue covers six city blocks between W34th and W40th street. The $18.00 discounted admission tickets ($6.00 for children) are available at MotorcycleShows.com/New-York, and 2-day packages are also available for $25.00. You can also follow the event on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll post more picture from the show’s media day next week.

The beach town of Wildwood, New Jersey, begins the process of shutting down after Labor Day weekend, but one event that raises the community from it’s pre-winter slumber is The Race of Gentlemen, now in its third year. Part carnival, part car show, part open-air party, The Race of Gentlemen is a return to the very roots of racing.

To call it photogenic is a vast understatement, particularly for those with a passion for bangers, flatheads and tank-shift bikes. Having the beach as a backdrop never disappoints, either, and this year’s crowd was blessed with a temperamental sky (and admittedly, cursed with a bit of rain) that delivered sublime lighting for photography.

We’ve captured well over a thousand images of the spectacle that is the Race of Gentlemen, and sorting them will take a bit of time. Until then, enjoy the gallery below, meant as a brief taste of what’s to come.

Indian Motorcycles have been a part of American motorcycling history since the firm, then named the Hendee Manufacturing Company, built its first production motorcycle in 1901. Over its 113-year history, the brand has seen numerous successes and failures, along with several revivals and changes in ownership. Indian Nation, an exhibit opening later this month at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, paints a portrait of the distinctly American brand and its lengthy history through displays of 22 Indian motorcycles and associated in-period memorabilia.

The Hendee Manufacturing Company, which originally produced bicycles, was founded in 1897 by bicycle racer George Hendee. His products initially carried the “Silver King” and “Silver Queen” labels, but to increase brand recognition in foreign markets, Hendee wanted a name that symbolized the United States; ultimately, “American Indian” was chosen. In 1900, Swedish machinist and fellow bicycle racer Oscar Hedstrom joined the firm, and the pair soon began building motorized bicycles with modest 1.75 horsepower engines. A year later, the firm’s first prototype motorcycle was constructed, followed by two production versions; the Indian name was adopted for this product line as well, as it served as a reminder of “America’s pioneer tradition.”

When the first Indian motorcycles were sold in 1902, they hit the market with chain drives and streamlined styling, though this was far less extreme than the brand would produce in later years. In 1903, Hedstrom (then Indian’s chief engineer) set a world motorcycle speed record of 56 MPH aboard an Indian motorcycle, and in 1904 the Crimson Steed of Steel livery (that would later become a hallmark of Indian design) was introduced. Two years later, the firm introduced the first production U.S. V-twin engine, and an icon of American motorcycling was born.

By 1914, the Hendee Manufacturing Company had grown to massive proportions, with a seven-mile long production line housed in the company’s one-million-square-foot headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. During the First World War, Indian ceased its racing endeavors to focus on the war effort, and the company was soon rewarded by booming sales fueled by returning American soldiers. In 1923, with Indian an instantly recognized brand the world over, the firm dropped the Hendee name to become Indian Motocycle Company (with motocycle being a common early spelling of motorcycle).

The Great Depression had an impact on all motorcycle sales, but Indian soldiered through after its 1930 acquisition by DuPont Motors, headed by industrialist and Indian motorcycle owner E. Paul du Pont. When war loomed again at the decade’s end, Indian went on the offensive, producing motorcycles and sidecar rigs for both American and Allied armed forces. As the war ended, however, Indian could no longer wait for another postwar sales boom, and was sold to the Torque Engineering Company, which soon split manufacturing and distribution between two companies. Anticipated postwar prosperity never came, and in 1953, the Indian brand halted production for the first time.

The brand still had merit, and over the years appeared on an odd assortment of motorcycles and motorcycling-related products. This ended when a new Indian Motorcycle Company began producing new motorcycles in 1999. Just four years later, this venture also failed, but the rights to the name and the company’s intellectual property were quickly acquired by another entity with a goal of relaunching the brand. In 2008, a new iteration of Indian motorcycles began production, aimed at the upper strata of the domestic market, just as the U.S. economy began a downward spiral.

Enter Polaris, the powersport giant that produces snowmobiles, ATVs, watercraft and the Victory motorcycle brand. In 2011, Polaris acquired rights to the Indian brand and its intellectual property, and set to work redesigning the Indian motorcycle lineup for a 2014 launch.

The Indian Nation exhibit at the AACA Museum won’t cover every decade of the brand, but motorcycles to be displayed range from an unrestored 1903 Indian (believed to be among the earliest surviving examples of the marque) to a 1957 Indian Apache. Representing the brand’s early racing success will be a 1916 four-valve single board-track racer, a 1928 Scout hill-climber and a 1940 Scout racer. Proving that the Indian brand crossed all demographics is a 1906 Indian, in unrestored condition, once owned by industrialist (and later, Indian Motocycle president) E. Paul du Pont. Highlighting the trend towards customization is a 1934 Indian Chief “bobber,” modified for cleaner lines and weight savings, while a 1940 Military Chief is indicative of the company’s efforts to support the military during World War II, which qualified it for an Army-Navy Production Award in 1943.

Indian Nation will open at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 28 and run through October 24. For additional details, visit AACAMuseum.org.

John Surtees aboard a Vincent at Dunsfold, England, in 2012. Photo by Supermac1961.

To win a Formula One World Championship is an impressive feat, one that generally takes decades of practice behind the wheel of successively faster race cars. Similarly, winning an FIM motorcycle world championship takes an equal amount of talent, albeit in a radically different discipline; winning seven FIM championships, in multiple classes, across a span of just five seasons, takes a competitor of nearly superhuman talents. In the history of racing, only Sir John Surtees has been able to claim all of the above achievements on his resume, making him one of the most impressive racers the world has ever known.

Born in Tatsfield, Surrey, England, in February of 1934, Surtees took to two wheels at an early age. His father enjoyed success as a motorcycle side car racer and owned a motorcycle dealership as his primary business, so perhaps Surtees had little choice in the matter. By 15, an age when most children would be enduring lectures by parents on the dangers of motorcycling, John Surtees had already started down the path to motorcycle racing glory and was competing in local grass-track events. A year later, he’d start an apprenticeship with Vincent Motorcycles, though riding motorcycles would ultimately prove more to his liking than building them.

At age 21, Surtees was hired by Norton motorcycles to race for the factory team, where he demonstrated his skill by beating then-world champion Geoff Duke at both Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Financial troubles for Norton ended their relationship after the 1955 season, but MV Agusta quickly hired Surtees for the 1956 season. It turned out to be a good move for the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, as Surtees delivered a world championship in the 500cc class, acquiring the nickname “Son of the Wind” in the process. Gilera proved dominant in the 1957 season, but when both Gilera and Moto Guzzi walked away from racing at season’s end, MV Augusta was once again the brand to beat.

Surtees wheels a Mercedes-Benz W165 at Goodwood in 2011. Photo by Supermac1961.

Surtees wasted no time in asserting his dominance in the sport of motorcycle racing, winning both 350cc and 500cc world championships in 1958, 1959 and 1960. As impressive as this feat was, it’s even more amazing that Surtees scored 32 victories in 39 races contested during this period, or that he took wins in three consecutive Isle of Man Tourist Trophy events, arguably the toughest and most dangerous motorcycle race in the world. By 1959, he was even being recruited to race cars, with both Vanwall Cars and Aston Martin offering him test time in their products.

His first formula car race came in 1959, when he drove a Ken Tyrrell F3 car to a second place finish behind rising star Jim Clark. That was enough for Colin Chapman, who hired Surtees to drive four races for the Lotus F1 team in the 1960 season. At Monaco, Surtees’s very first F1 race, his day ended in a transmission failure after just 17 laps. His next race wouldn’t be until the British Grand Prix, but Surtees would finish second (behind Jack Brabham) in just his second F1 start, before going on to a pair of DNFs in his final two races for Lotus during the 1960 season.

For 1961, Surtees joined the Yeoman Credit Racing Team, where he campaigned a Cooper-Climax during a “learning year” that yielded a finish no higher than fifth place and DNFs in four of eight races. Despite this, he returned to the team (now Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing) for 1962, and quickly began producing better results with the Lola-Climax combination. By year end, Surtees had amassed three top-five finishes and two second-place finishes, but four DNFs kept him from climbing higher than fourth in the season-end standings.

Enzo Ferrari admired Surtees’s style (and his bravery), and recruited the English driver to Scuderia Ferrari for the 1963 season. While the season was, overall, another disappointment, Surtees managed his first F1 win at Germany’s Nürburgring, where he passed Jim Clark (whose Lotus-Climax was running on just seven of its eight cylinders) for the victory. Despite the win and a second-place finish in Great Britain, Surtees was still plagued by four DNFs and a disqualification in Mexico; for a man used to dominating in motorsport, Surtees seemed to be having far less luck on four wheels.

Things would turn around in 1964, when Surtees would finish first, second or third in every race he’d complete. Ironically, he still suffered four DNFs, but strong finishes in the season’s other six races would carry him to a one-point championship win over second-place Graham Hill. As in the previous season, Surtees would deliver a win on the Nordschleife, but would also deliver a “home” win for Ferrari in the Italian Grand Prix. The 1965 season would also see Surtees begin on a strong note, racking up a second-place finish in South Africa and a fourth-place finish in Monaco.

As was often the case with drivers of the period, Surtees raced in other series besides Formula One. While testing a Lola T70 Can Am car at Mosport, Surtees suffered a suspension failure that resulted in a high-speed crash. Faced with life-threatening injuries, Surtees missed the final two F1 races of the 1965 season and finished fifth in the championship. Many feared that Surtees would never drive again, but he proved his critics wrong when he grabbed victory in the second race of the 1966 season, at the Belgian Grand Prix. Retirements would once again prove to be his downfall, and five DNFs in nine races ultimately cost Surtees his chance at winning a second title.

Though he’d started the year at Ferrari, a disagreement with Ferrari team manager Eugenio Dragoni at Le Mans (where Dragoni had deliberately left him off the team’s roster, claiming he was still too weak from his 1965 crash at Mosport) pushed Surtees to his breaking point. What had been simmering between Surtees and Dragoni for years had finally boiled over, prompting the English driver to quit the team on the spot. He wasn’t unemployed for long, as he showed up at the very next F1 race of the 1966 season (the French Grand Prix) driving for Cooper.

Had Surtees stayed at Ferrari, it’s likely he’d have captured another championship, but that was not to be. His time at Cooper in 1966 produced 4 DNFs in seven races, and for 1967 he signed with Honda Racing to help develop its F1 program. Two years with Honda yielded more frustration, with Surtees finishing fourth in 1967 and eighth in 1968, and when Honda pulled the plug on F1 for the 1969 season, Surtees landed at BRM. One season with BRM convinced Surtees that his best chance at a second title would come with his own team, and Surtees Racing debuted for the 1970 F1 season.

By 1972, the folly in this reasoning became apparent, as Surtees was spending far too much time raising money and soliciting sponsorship and far too little time developing and testing cars. For 1973, Surtees transitioned into the full-time role of team manager, which he’d occupy until the team dissolved in 1978. By then, the stress of trying to compete at racing’s highest levels proved too great; coupled with the injuries Surtees had received in his 1965 crash, he began to realize that the pace he’d been keeping was no longer sustainable.

That’s not to say that Surtees hung up his Nomex (or his leathers) entirely, as he remained active in vintage events and even dabbled (again) in team management for a while. In 1991, Surtees’s second wife gave birth to a son (a week past John’s 57th birthday), and suddenly the former champion found himself in the role of a lifetime, preparing his son Henry to follow in his footsteps. And follow he did, progressing through various series before joining the Formula Two ranks in 2009. During a race at Brands Hatch, Henry Surtees was struck in the head by a wheel and tire from a competitor’s car, sustaining severe head trauma in the accident. Despite the best efforts of first responders and doctors, Henry Surtees died of his injuries later that same day, at just 18 years of age. Perhaps the cruelest irony was this: John Surtees raced on two wheels and on four when death was considered a necessary risk, just another part of competing at the sport’s highest levels. By the time Henry Surtees had begun his racing career, the sport was perceived as safe, particularly in ladder series like Formula Two.

While the world may ask the question “What if John Surtees had stayed with Ferrari in 1966,” it’s very likely that the only question Sir John Surtees ponders is what he could have done to prevent his son’s unpredictable and tragic accident.

Author’s note: Just as I was finishing this piece, EVRO Publishing announced a new book on Surtees, John Surtees: My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels, to be released on 19 June, 2014. For further details, visit JohnSurtees.com.

To be clear, the 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750 was not the first repli-racer offered to the riding public, an honor that some would argue belongs to BSA’s late 1950s Gold Star models, available from the dealership with features like clip-on handlebars, finned brakes for cooling, polished gas tank and lightweight engines. The 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750 (1986 for buyers in the United States) was, however, the first Japanese production motorcycle to be based almost entirely on the brand’s factory endurance racers, and it quickly re-wrote the book on street-legal performance motorcycles.

Introduced in Japan in March of 1985, the GSX-R750 looked like no other motorcycle on the market. Though sportbikes were hardly a new concept, and Japanese rivals Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha each produced fast and capable motorcycles, none was distilled directly from factory racing efforts. Bikes like the Honda VFR750, the Kawasaki GPz750 and the Yamaha FZ750 (and even Suzuki’s own GS750ES) proved capable of winning races, but all required semi-extensive modifications to make them competitive. Each was first a street motorcycle that could adapt to the racetrack; the 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750, however, was primarily a racebike that just happened to carry the mandated directional signals, lighting, horn and license plate bracket.

At the heart of the first GSX-R750 was its engine, displacing 750cc and making a modest 100 horsepower in street trim (although a readily available “competition kit” boosted this to 130 horsepower). Designed to be as light and compact as possible, the four-cylinder was fed by a bank of four 29mm Mikuni flat-slide carburetors and cooled via “SACS,” or the Suzuki Advanced Cooling System. Instead of using water and coolant to carry off heat, Suzuki used engine oil, chilled by a radiator-sized oil cooler located behind the front wheel. Thanks to the extensive use of aluminum and magnesium, the engine itself weighed just 73 kilograms (161 pounds), further helping to reduce the motorcycle’s overall weight.

Instead of a steel frame, the 1985 GSX-R750 was the first production motorcycle to benefit from a racing-derived aluminum alloy box frame, what Suzuki referred to as “MR-ALBOX,” short for Multi-Rib Aluminum Alloy Box frame. Again, the benefit was weight savings, and the frame itself tipped the scales at a mere 8 kilograms (18 pounds), helping the original GSX-R750 to achieve a dry weight of just 176 kilograms (388 pounds). Compared to other similarly sized sportbikes of the day, that was a 20 percent reduction in weight, giving the bike a superior horsepower-to-weight ratio.

Lighter weight produces advantages in braking as well, and the 1985 GSX-R750 came to market with twin four-piston front brake calipers, each grabbing a drilled 300mm (11.8-inch) rotor. Even the rear brake used a single twin-piston caliper, and the first GSX-R750 was capable of truly impressive dry stopping distances when fitted with race-spec brake pads and slick tires. At a time when 16-inch wheels were considered “cutting edge” by other manufacturers, Suzuki fitted 18-inch wheels to the GSX-R and its logic was simple: If this size was good enough for the works endurance racers, it was good enough for a street-legal race bike.

Even the slab-sided bodywork fitted to the first GSX-R was a bit different, providing nearly full coverage for the four-cylinder engine and a relatively tall windscreen for the rider to tuck behind. With low clip-on style handlebars and somewhat rearset foot pegs, the GSX-R threw the rider into the same forward cant used by racers, though to a less extreme degree. The relatively high foot pegs also gave the bike a 55-degree corning angle, virtually unheard of on a production motorcycle at the time. As anyone who’s ever ridden an early GSX-R for any length of time can attest, the riding position delivers good control, at the expense of comfort. While a few first-generation GSX-R owners fitted bikes with soft luggage, revised seats and even taller bars and windshields for touring purposes, most owners reserved the bike for shorter rides and track days.

Ironically, the very things that made the bike light in weight soon began to cause trouble for those who actively raced early GSX-Rs. By Japanese motorcycle standards, engines proved to be a bit fragile for racetrack duty, while the aluminum frames flexed more than heavier steel equivalents. Both issues were promptly addressed by the aftermarket, and Suzuki continued to evolve the motorcycle with yearly improvements that aided both performance and handling.

The first generation GSX-R lasted until the 1988 model year, when an all-new GSX-R750 arrived on the market with significant revisions to the engine, chassis and bodywork. Further evolutions added liquid cooling (to extract more power from the four-cylinder engine); ram air to boost power at speed; stiffer frames to improve handling; and digital fuel injection to improve throttle response over a wide variety of conditions. Though the GSX-R 750 still graces Suzuki dealer showrooms today, the model’s only similarity to the original is its street-legal but track-focused mission (and perhaps its available blue-and-white livery).

Finding an original and pristine example today would prove challenging, as most owners rode the bike to its limits (and, quite often, beyond), but spotting one racing in a vintage series (sans original engine and bodywork, of course) might not prove too challenging. Perhaps the GSX-R750′s staying power is proof that performance and affordability never go out of style, whether it’s on two wheels or on four.